Convert html entities to UTF-8, but keep existing UTF-8

Question

I want to convert html entities to UTF-8, but mb_convert_encoding destroys already UTF-8 encoded characters. Whats the correct way?

$text = "äöü &auml; &ouml; &uuml; &#223;";
var_dump(mb_convert_encoding($text, 'UTF-8', 'HTML-ENTITIES'));
// string(24) "Ã¤Ã¶Ã¼ ä ö ü ß"

Perhaps use [html_entity_decode()](http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.html-entity-decode.php) instead? [Demo](http://ideone.com/zIJa8a) — Mark Baker, Jul 10 '15 at 10:20
works like a charm! can you make it an answer so I can mark it as solved? — , Jul 10 '15 at 10:36
7 years later :-) : Could you clarify that you’re talking about PHP? — Jens-Erik Weber, Nov 14 '22 at 15:17

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 10 '15 at 10:39

mb_convert_encoding() isn't the correct function for what you're trying to achieve: you should really be using html_entity_decode() instead, because it will only convert the actual html entities to UTF-8, and won't affect the existing UTF-8 characters in the string.

$text = "äöü &auml; &ouml; &uuml; &#223;";
var_dump(html_entity_decode($text, ENT_COMPAT | ENT_HTML401, 'UTF-8'));

which gives

string(18) "äöü ä ö ü ß"

Demo

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 10 '15 at 10:30

In my localhost I get string(18) "äöü ä ö ü ß" .

I think it's something related with your page encoding. Edit the file with Notepad++ and from the toolbar go to encoding and change to 'Encode in ANSI'. If it doesn't work then try with 'Encode in UTF-8 without BOM'.

MeSo2 · Answer 3 · 2018-04-04T15:44:14.590

0

and if that still isn't working try this

html_entity_decode($html, ENT_QUOTES, 'cp1252');

This is what was needed on a Windows IIS system for things to start working correctly. see source

edited Apr 04 '18 at 15:44

answered Mar 15 '18 at 05:32

MeSo2

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Convert html entities to UTF-8, but keep existing UTF-8

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